Sri Lanka aiming to capitalise on rare Windies visit

By

06th-Jun-2018

Share

Comments

AFP, Port of Spain :West Indies and Sri Lanka commence one of the most infrequent of international cricket assignments when the first match of a three-Test series begins on Wednesday at the Queen's Park Oval in Trinidad.More than 36 years since being granted Test status, this is just Sri Lanka's fourth Test tour of the Caribbean and the first involving more than two matches.On their last campaign to the region ten years earlier, the team led by Mahela Jayawardene claimed their first Test victory in the West Indies in a shared rubber.Sri Lanka will be keen to extend the form of their last seven matches in which they were beaten just once, away to top-ranked India, and enjoyed an historic 2-0 triumph over Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates while also prevailing at home over an improving Bangladesh side by the same margin in their last Test action in February.However, their preparations for this series have been hampered by unexpected setbacks involving key players.Concerns also linger over a number of seniors in the squad who are being managed very carefully with a view to ensuring their readiness for the World Cup in England in 11 months' time.Opener Dimuth Karunaratne misses the tour because of injury, as do fast bowlers Dushmantha Chameera and Nuwan Pradeep.Emerging batting star Dhananjaya de Silva was due in Trinidad on Monday having stayed at home when the touring party departed Colombo because of the shooting death of his father, a local councillor in the Sri Lankan capital, the evening before they were due to start the journey to the West Indies on May 25.It is unlikely that he will be considered for the first Test although he is expected to be back in the key number three position come the second Test in St Lucia and the final match in Barbados, the first-ever day/night Test to be played in the West Indies.Of the trio of senior statesmen in their side - left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, former captain Angelo Mathews and fast-medium bowler Suranga Lakmal - only Mathews featured in the lone warm-up match ahead of the Tests, a drawn three-day fixture against a Cricket West Indies President's XI highlighted by captain Dinesh Chandimal's assured hundred.All three are expected to play key roles in the quest for a first Test series triumph in the West Indies although Sri Lanka's selectors have already indicated that concerns over their long-term fitness are likely to result in their being rested for at least one of the three matches.Despite a poor showing in their most recent Test series in New Zealand last December, the West Indies selectors have retained the bulk of that squad in the expectation of returning to the level of competitiveness they showed in earlier Test campaigns in 2017 against Pakistan, England and Zimbabwe.Devon Smith, the 36-year-old opening batsman, has been named in the 13-man squad on the strength of a prolific first-class season with the Windward Islands.It remains to be seen if he can earn a spot in the final eleven at the expense of incumbent Kieran Powell and extend a Test career that looked over when he was dropped following the second Test of the home series against England in his native Grenada in 2015.A Queen's Park Oval pitch which has acquired an unfortunate reputation for a turgid surface encouraging neither fast bowlers nor attacking batsmen is likely to result in the sort of dour battle of attrition which will examine both the stamina and concentration of both sides.West Indies cricket remains in an almost perennial state of flux as their star players from the T20 franchise formats around the world continue to be ignored by the selectors, sparking considerable debate within the region, while an investigation into alleged match and spot-fixing by the international news network Al Jazeera has thrown an unwanted spotlight on the Sri Lankan game.

News Archive

Inside The New Nation

THE nation mourns the 43rd Shahadat Anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman today with prayers and solemnity all over the country. He was assassinated with almost all of his family members in the wee hours of that fateful night at his home in the city. It was a night of ...

SOME 270 Bangladeshi workers have allegedly been defrauded of over Tk 3.6 crore by an agent over securing valid work permits under the Malaysian rehiring programme. The Bangladeshi nationals had handed over their passports, other relevant documents and paid between Tk 144,000 and Tk 160,000 each to the agent for ...

AFP, London :Egyptian star Mohamed Salah could be in trouble with police after his club Liverpool passed a video apparently showing him using his mobile phone while driving.A spokesman for last season's Champions League finalists said they passed the video, which had circulated on social media, on to police after ...

Tamannaah Bhatia says she had fun shooting for a 'retro number' in the period drama "KGF".Tamannaah shot for the recreated version of the song "Jokae naanu balliya minchu", a song which was picturised on late Vijayalalitha in director Rajkumar's Kannada film "Paropakari". "This is the first time I will be ...

AFP, Los Angeles :US immigration judges say they are under increasing pressure from President Donald Trump's administration to speed up immigrant deportations - or risk removal if they delay.This pressure is highlighted in the case of a judge in Philadelphia, Steven Morley, who was informed that a case he was ...

CABINET Secretary after weekly Cabinet meeting on Monday told journalists that the committee formed by government to review the existing quota system proposed abolition of almost all the quotas in public services giving priority to talent. However, the court directives will be sought before taking any decision over freedom fighter ...

Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful said Monday that has set his sights on a comeback with the national side after his five-year ban for match-fixing ended."I am feeling really nice as I was waiting for this day for the last five years. (I told myself) when August 13, 2018 came ...

Even before the debut of her release film Sara Ali Khan is already a popular name amongst the masses. On the occasion of Sara’s Birthday, fans across the nation took Twitter by storm as #HBDSaraAliKhan and #WeWantSaraOnSocialMedia saw a strong India trend. Soon, social media went into a tizzy as ...

Actress Rani Mukherji, who has bagged the Best Actress Award for Hichki at the Indian Film Festival Melbourne (IFFM), says the film is a story that has universal resonance, and its spirit of positivity won over Indians and locals in Australia. “I feel very proud and thankful that Hichki has ...

AFP, Seoul :North and South Korea agreed Monday to hold a summit in Pyongyang in September, the South's Yonhap news agency reported following high-level talks in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula.The two sides "agreed at the meeting to hold a South-North summit in Pyongyang in September as planned", ...

BANGLADESH Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) is now on the verge of collapse due to administrative and financial mismanagement. Newspaper reports said BRTC as per its own estimate incurred a loss of Tk 413 crore in 2016-17 fiscal. When bus transport has become very lucrative business in the private sector with ...

Bangladesh U-15 national women's team head coach Golam Robanni Choton said her girls are upbeat to give their hundred percent to win against Nepal in the SAFF U-15 Women's Championship.Bangladesh will face Nepal in their second group B match scheduled to be held today at Changlimithan Football Stadium in Bhutan."We ...

Like any child, actor Dia Mirza, too, was entranced when she first saw an elephant. "The first time I saw an elephant was on the streets of Hyderabad. I was very young and was just so enamored by that sight. It was so unusual to see an elephant in an ...